This invention is directed to an electronic system for enhancing the sound emanating from a performing shell, and in particular to the use of a series of loudspeakers forward of the performing shell for electronically simulating and/or improving the symphonic criteria of good concert hall sound.
The use of enclosed auditoriums not particularly constructed to provide for good concert hall design, and even more so, open air performing shells, wherein the sound emanates from a stage formed in part of a shell consisting of at least a back wall and floor, causes sound to be produced, the articulation, intimacy, warmth and presence, of the sound referred to as symphonic criteria, being far below that obtainable in a concert hall. Due to the absence of ceilings and walls in an open enclosure, and the considerable expanse of many auditoriums not particularly designed for symphonic use, sound reflections, a critical aspect in providing for symphonic criteria are either entirely lost or sufficiently attenuated as to provide less than completely satisfactory musical acoustics. Heretofore, in closed auditoriums, the obtaining of good concert hall sound was only possible through expensive architectural manipulations including the raising and lowering of ceilings, the introduction of variable amounts of drapery materials and the use of suspended panels on walls and ceilings for reflecting sound, such architectural manipulations being extremely expensive and denigrating certain symphonic criteria in an attempt to improve the other such criteria.